6feet7

But then we are both GUS owners - well, I was. I once had 6 GUS G1 guitars, 1 baritone and 2 basses. All gone to pay bills etc But it shows that we don't like 'the norm'. I'm not too worried about the original pickups on the Zenith. I wasn't totally enamoured with them when I did have a 'stock' Zenith, plus, I like passive basses (less to go wrong), so always change the pickups to passive on anything I have.

The headstock is a direct copy of my early 90's Epiphone El-Capitan V fretless , so I am slightly obsessed with getting it right (sort of, says he converting a 4 string to a 5 string, adding a neck with an extra fret and putting in 2 EMG's). No idea how old the body is, but I assume it was made around 2010 (that's when they came out and they weren't around for long). I had a black 4 string version a few years ago but as I only play 5's now .......... Think it's camera angle trickery (well, iphone trickery really Just been to see it (I managed to get hold of a mini brass Epiphone logo that is on the original bridge which I want Simon to stick on for me. He says he's had it set up already and the string height and intonation is bang on. PS. For those worried about me sticking Epiphone logo's on the headstock and passing it off as an Epiphone (I don't think Epiphone is a lusted after enough brand, but you know what I mean), I'm not, apart from the truss rod cover and the brass bridge logo (both un-screwable and removable). The body is Epiphone but the rest isn't, so the headstock will just be oiled ebony (to match the fret board).

Like this:-

You should see it mocked up with the two pickups in place with a gold 3 way Gibson style toggle for pickup selection with a rotary series/parallel switch and master volume and tone. I can't wait for it to be finished and plugged in

Because we are converting a 4 string to a 5 string which happens to have a rosewood bridge (that, once again, isn't an off the shelf buy), Simon had to make a new bridge. He just happened to have a block of left over rosewood that was the exact right size. Because we couldn't find a piece of plastic/graphtech or bone long enough for the saddle, brass was used.

Next phase is to fill in the through body holes, route out new ones and make a new ferrule out of brass then apply chemicals to it to blend it in with the other 4 (the Zenith bass appears to have different ferrules to everyone else, so it wasn't an 'off the shelf' buy unfortunately).

Yup. It's Simon's. And as much as I absolutely love his stuff I can't afford it, so I'm using his talents in other ways I might try and save up for one of his G5 bases though. Rather gorgeous

And the headstock shaped.

Here's the neck pocket routed out.

I've always had a weak spot for Les Pauls and 'f' holes, and because of this I used to own an Epiphone Zenith bass (basically a not quite as semi hollow as it looks with double f hole Les Paul type bass). I now only play 5 strings and they only made the Zenith as a 4, so when I saw a Zenith bass body going for sale for less than it costs me to fill my car with fuel I had an idea. Firstly I bought the body and had to wait a week for shipping from the USA. I then got in touch with Keisel/Carvin in the USA to make a 5 string neck (I didn't want a Fender type headstock and they were the only people I could find who could make me a neck with a paddle shaped headstock affordably (unfortunately it's a 22 fret neck and the Zenith was originally a 21 fret neck, so some routing out of the body plus reshaping the heel of the neck will be required.) It's maple with an ebony board. The headstock will be shaped in the open book more Gibson than Epiphone style. Instead of the piezo/magnetic mix pickup that was on the original Zenith I've got an almost new set of EMG passive pickups plus a copy of an LR Baggs piezo unit/ batteryless preamp. I was going to go for Kent Armstrong Claymore pickups that are in my Patrick Eggle basses, but found the pair of EMG's for the same price as one Armstrong one. I'm sticking with the wooden/through body stringing bridge, though a new wider rosewood bridge will have to be made to accommodate the 5 strings. Unfortunately I'm totally cack handed when it comes to either woodwork or electrics, so Simon Farmer of GUS Guitars (maker of Prince's last guitar and bass) who lives just up the road from me is doing the mods (you should have seen his face when I took all the parts over to him Anyway, here's the body when it first arrived. (and also a photo of what it 'originally' looked like).

My old, originals band (MALF). The first picture was in a town called Weed in North California, USA, where we the only British band playing at their festival. They sure do like an English accent (though they couldn't understand Dave (purple shirt) who is from Yorkshire, and Rodger (beard and sunglasses) from Scotland). Sadly no longer together but we have said that when we have some money we are going back to California for some gigs. Here's hoping.

These - the 12cm wide ones. I've been searching for years and these are the best I've found (for me, anyway). http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Maruszczyk_straps.html

Prince didn't actually order the GUS G1 guitar. Simon had made it for him a few years before (he knew someone in Prince's entourage and between them they tried to get it to Prince when he was last over here touring. It didn't happen). But, word over the internet reached Prince about a Purple Special GUS G1 guitar so he asked for it to be sent over (and there is a picture of Prince holding it at his last ever performance). He liked it so much he then ordered the bass.

Simon Farmer from GUS Guitars (he lives 5 miles up the road from me and has looked after my guitars and basses for 20 years) finally managed to get a purple special GUS G1 guitar to Prince (a long story over several years about missed meetings/opportunities etc etc) and Prince used it on his very last appearance (along with a new purple piano). It was a gift to Prince from Simon but Prince then asked Simon to build him the bass. Unfortunately Prince never got to see it (I have, as well as having held the purple guitar, and both were absolutely fabulous). Another famous artist (I don't know if the information is in the public realm yet, so I wont say who) now owns both guitar and bass.

Just bought a Phil Jones Briefcase from Rob. Great communication and an absolute pleasure to deal with.

I've a strip of white reflective tape from Halfords and use a hole punch and stick the punched out dots over the fret marker dots. I use this method on all my basses.

I had a Retromatic B2 and, apart from it's wonderful looks, it was a great bass.Shame they only made it as a 4 string or else I'd have kept it. Peerless make guitars and basses for many other companies (a bit like Cort) so you can't really go wrong with them.

The same could be said for my bass playing

Sunbeams are the only strings I use nowadays.